April 1st, 2008 
Spooky I knew PCs can get pretty hot, but not that hot…WOW!!!
After seeing people use pumpkins as PC cases, I shouldn’t have been surprised by this experiment, but I was. First of all, I had no idea a PC could function in a pool of cooking oil, let alone heat it enough to cook French fries in it. Wacky experiments like these always put a smile on my face.
Posted in 
April Fools!
A PC will operate if immersed in a pool of oil but there’s no way in hell it will get hot enough to use as a deep fryer.
Yum…the wholesome taste of lead.
I’d say that looks like some sort of PIII. According to here:
http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=maxtemp.shtml
The max operating temperature is somewhere between 60 and 85 degrees celsius. Let’s go with 70 as the max temp. That is the max operating (manufacturer suggested) tempurature. Meaning it could get hotter.
70 celsius = 158 degrees farenheit = about half the normal temperature to cook french fries. I bet they would cook enough. No telling how hot you could get the oil anyway if you ran it long enough. Assuming the cpu doesn’t have a thermal shutdown point.
In that case, that seems like an extremely excellent way to cool your system.
This was first seen on hardOCP forums, IIRC. It is not a hoax, yes it worked, he even played a few games of doom (until lockup/thermal shutdown).
Neat story.
Let’s see… A hotplate in the fifth picture, a P-III which isn’t even submerged and.. no, that’s where I’ll stop….
Have to take issue with that M Becker comment, much better to submerge in tomato ketchup…
A) Pretty sure it’s sitting on top of a heating unit in the 5th pic (the light beige thing with the knobs).
B) It’s a P2 not a P3. VERY few P3’s used the slot interface.
C) There is no verification in the pics of the boiling oil with fries of the PC itself operation, or of it operating after
Result: Most likly false.
There is definate potential that the PC was running while the fries were cooking, however the PC did not heat the oil to the point that it was boiling and cooking-worthy.
RE: E Gargan
Except for the fact that ketchup doesn’t react well to direct heat, in addition to potentially causing shorts. Canola oil does not short out MoBos (it WILL short out a power supply though), isn’t acidic, and should circulate better (less viscous).
You would have to cover the bottom of the circuit board so the pins on the bottom wouldn’t short out on the aluminum tray. (or use a different tray)..
It’s fake. While a computer might able to function when immersed in vegetable oil (not certain considering the viscosity change at temps above 150°C and the change to the dielectric constant), fries are cooked at 160-180°C/330-360°F, far beyond the operating temperature of a CPU. There is no off-the-shelf CPU which operates over 100°C, and potatoes sitting in oil at that temperature remain inedible.
It was heated externally. There is no way the CPU itself would heat enough to cook the fries.
Also, here is the REAL source:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1104341
Hehe, nice april fools gag
At me such question
I can not change the menu in Windows, it looks on new why that….
Help to adjust… At me of a Window 98